My week in pictures

Saoirse had her first time out this week. She had been talked to in the morning about telling lies, as she had accused Sophie of dropping cake from the table when really it was her. How did I know this? Well, Sophie was in the bathroom with me when I heard the thunk of cake falling from table to chair to floor. Plus, the icing was all over her white tights which is why she is wearing some clashing orange with the pink dress in the above picture. She was sent on the time out for throwing a toy at Sophie's head and immediately turning to me and saying "Sophie did it!" Then she ran under the computer desk chair and started crying. She refused to say sorry to Sophie so she received a 3 minute time out. She actually sat through it, something my others never would have done, and Sophie doesn't either. Don't judge me for the bloody dummy in her mouth. She's been really good about not taking it, we are almost ready for the dummy fairy to come and take them all away, but when she is upset she likes it. Yes, yes, I know she is over 3. Shut up. Sophie was kind enough to sit with Saoirse and keep her company, which sort of defeats the purpose of a time out.



She loves to stamp. Taylor was making a card for a friend's birthday so she joined in. She was having so much fun she didn't want to get changed for ballet.


A close up of her ladybugs, done on actual Stampin Up card stock. Usually I only give her scrap paper, but oh no, Taylor was kind enough to give her 18 cents worth of paper. I am officially cheap.


I am picturing this photo in her high school yearbook in the "Who is this baby?" section. Or at her wedding reception. She will be so mad at me for this photo one day.


This is what happens when a 3 year old picks her own clothes. Red striped dress, pink polka dot leggings, purple socks. She even told me how she wanted her hair done. Saoirse really has a thing for dresses right now, and hardly ever wears pants. The other day at school her teacher and a mum even commented on the fact that she was wearing pants, for the first time in about a month, but it was only because we were out of tights. (Hence the orange ones in the first picture!)

Off to playschool

I had no intentions of putting Saoirse into playschool this year, I thought I would just leave it until next year. I started to think though that she really needs something extra, and needs to make some friends, besides just the ones on our block. I saw an advertisement in the community paper for the same playschool Taylor and Liam attended oh so many years ago. I asked my neighbour if her son Alex was going and she said yes, so I managed to get Saoirse the last spot in the morning class because of course she wants to go with Alex. Turns out Alex is actually in the afternoon class, which doesn't work for his mother and her job. She'll keep him in the class but I have to pick him up and she'll drop them both off. I don't know how long this will last. Saoirse isn't even allowed to start until after she turns 3, which isn't until November. Anyway, I am sure it will all be fine. She is so excited! And I signed up to be the room rep! Because I am a freaking eejit! Oh, and even though she's not allowed to start until November I still had to take 2 cases of chocolate almonds, one of which my mum sold at work today and the other is sitting in our house, currently with $24 worth of boxes eaten by us. So much for any weight loss this week. I have zero willpower.

Saoirse and I had this conversation about school and her backpack:

Me: Are you going to use your Curious George backpack when you go to playschool?
Saoirse: No.
M: No? Why not?
S: I'm going to use princesses. I'm going to use my suitcase.
M: You can't use your suitcase for playschool.
S: Yes, I can.
M: No, you can't.
S: Yes, I can. Daddy says I can.



Her mad face.



Sitting in the sink. She did just start out washing her hands.



Saoirse loves Liam's old play hard hat.



Sleeping on the sofa. Tell me how to get rid of the dummy without losing my mind.



I don't know why, but she insists on drinking from the kitchen and bathroom taps.



I screwed up. I didn't seperate my Facebook photo list from the blogger one. Too lazy to remove and it's not the worst picture of me, even if it's not great.



My aunt told us to delete this one, but one day when she is a teenager we may need to use it against her. We were at my brother's and she said "I feel sick" and ran to lean over the toilet. She was fine.


She would only wear these glasses upside down. Why? No idea.



We had just gone swimming and before I could dress her, she ran off to climb these steps. She wouldn't come down until I took her picture. 3 times.



My brother bought her this unicorn. She loves it, as it makes noise.



Fooling around at Uncle Thom's.


In the wading pool at Gyro Park, by far her favourite place in all of Nelson.



On our last night we went out to dinner at this funky restaurant with no menus. They made Saoirse and Sophie a cheese pizza, which she didn't eat of course. She survived on peanut butter and toast all week.



Wearing 2 hats.



Sunglasses at breakfast.

Because I haven't talked about Saoirse enough:
She has dolls from the Disney Store, one is Ariel and the other is Eric. (You know, from Little Mermaid.) Sophie has Sleeping Beauty but no Prince Charming. Saoirse makes Eric and Ariel kiss and sometimes Eric (the wee bastard!) even kisses Sleeping Beauty. If she sees us watching she stops and goes all shy. Today she was playing with Sleeping Beauty and she asked me to fix her crown. She says "Sleeping Beauty isn't actually a queen, she's a princess."
I say "That's right she's a princess."
You know why she's only a princess and not a queen according to Saoirse?

Because "Her doesn't have a man."

Oh my, how I laughed. That kid is classic. Or a throwback to the 50s.

Saoirse happenings

*Quite seriously, I would be very uncomfortable if a man reads this post. So, all two of you, look away.

When I got home tonight Sophie was screaming bloody murder. As soon as Liam passed her to me she stopped. William said she had pretty much cried the entire time after waking up. He also said that she fed herself her bottle, put it when she wanted it and took it out when she was done. I thought that was pretty impressive for a kid who gets maybe 2 bottles a month.

So I sit down and proceed to feed Sophie. During this, I was on the phone with my friend Shelley. When Sophie was done she cuddled against me as she often does so I just left my bra undone and pulled my shirt down a bit. At some point Saoirse comes over and sits with me. All of a sudden she pulls my shirt up and says "Can you feed me with this mummy?" I was a little shocked. How to deal? So she repeats herself "You feed me with this?"

I say to her that I use them to feed Sophie, that when she was a very little baby that was how I fed her. She ran her finger around my nipple and tried to undo the other side of the bra. And then told me to when she couldn't. And I did.

I really don't know what I would have done had she actually pushed trying to breastfeed. Everything I have read says just to let them but I don't know. She seems so old. Plus she has all those teeth. Ouch.

Also today, she told me she loves me. I think. I have complained before that Saoirse never says "I love you." If I say to her "Who do you love?" she will list people off... Daddy, mummy, Liam, Taylor, Sophie, Nanny...but she never answers an "I love you." It really bothers me.

Liam was home from school today and of course she follows him everywhere. He was going down to the basement and she said, as she was already going down the stairs, "I'm going with Liam. Bye Mom." (She still prefers mom to mummy, or even mum. Such an odd child.) I say "Bye Sorsh! Love you!" And I hear "Love you Mom!" Oh, the excitement! I literally jumped off the couch, put Sophie down and ran to the stairs "Did you just tell me you loved me? Is that what you said?"

She ignored me.

But I'm pretty sure she said that.

I can't believe the child has been talking for some 16 months and it took that long to get some semblance of an "I love you."

Hallowe'en

I love Halloween. Not for the actual holiday itself, though I certainly enjoy it. No, what I love about Halloween is the next day. November 1st. The official kick off to Christmas. As soon as the last kid left my driveway tonight, I started putting up Christmas decorations. For the most part, I use snowmen until the middle of November and then start adding the actual Christmas decorations. In a place like Edmonton you could potentially have snow decorations up for 5 or 6 months. Even I get tired of them eventually and they usually come down at the beginning of March to be replaced by the St. Patrick's decorations. And on and on the cycle goes.

Anyway...back to Halloween. The two little ones were absolutely adorable, I will download the pictures tomorrow. I did their portraits in their costumes as well and will post them when they arrive next week. Sophie was a bat and Saoirse a monkey. We really lucked out with that choice, because she has become obsessed with Curious George. Tonight as William was taking her to bed she was crying for her costume "Monkey, monkey." It was very cute.

We went to Taylor's school parade. It took almost an hour, as the school has recently exploded in population. We are definitely feeling the effects of Alberta's booming economy. Need a job? Come here, just don't expect to find a place to live. At the very end, the principal invites all the younger siblings to parade around the gym. Taylor carried Sophie and her friend Ashley took Saoirse. Everyone loved the girls in their outfits.

William took Saoirse around our neighbourhood. She got a lot of stuff, but chose to eat the Halloween candy we were handing out. He then took Liam and his friends Josh and Tyler out for a few hours. Taylor went out on her own this year, for the first time. She went with her friends Connor, Theodore and Ryan (who she has had a crush on since Grade 3!) I was a bit worried about her being the only girl and being left behind, but she had a great time. Initially Ashley was also supposed to go but her mum changed her mind. She was out for over 2 hours and came home with 2 pillowcases full of candy.

Which leads me to a big problem. The candy...god, the candy. I have been going so great, I've lost more weight than what I gained with Sophie but between now and Christmas I am really going to struggle with not eating junkfood. Although I hate the fact that all my jeans are falling off me, I don't actually want them to fit properly ever again. I look forward to going out and buying new jeans, I don't want them to be too tight by January. Damn that candy tempting me. Bad candy! Bad!

The first snowfall

Today we had our first proper snowfall, not like the one a couple of weeks ago where it melted pretty quickly. This snow looks pretty hardy, like it might actually be here for the duration.

Fuck.

Saoirse, however, does not express this sentiment in regards to snow. Upstairs this morning, after me not understanding her telling me that those bastards Liverpool were kicking the shite out of my beloved Villa, she went to the window, pointed up towards it and says "Snow, snow!!"

Yea. Snow. Happy Days.

Saoirse missed snow last year due to the combined brown Christmas and her visit to Australia. It was sort of a shame because we had gotten her a funky wee baby sled for Christmas that she could not even use. She might get a month or two out of it now, if this snow sticks around and there's no sudden growth spurt.

She went outside pretty quickly this morning. William threw her smowpants and jacket on over her pajamas and off she went. Well, after she fell a few times in the livingroom. She was a bit like the Pillsbury Doughboy in her new gear. Liam took her outside and, to her great delight, threw snowballs at the livingroom window and then at Taylor who was watching out her bedroom window. He even managed to hit William in the ass, to the general amusement of us all.

In the afternoon, Taylor took Saoirse over to the hill down the road to try out the sled. She had a fantastic time, and in this new house I am able to see them from the patio window. Which works pretty well, really.

I totally forgot to say...

...that on Monday Sophie rolled on to her tummy.

Has she done it again?

Absolutely not.

Oh, and Saoirse did not pee from 10am until 5pm. She then peed in her booster seat. She will go and sit on the potty, not use it, use a wipe, flush it, then climb on the toilet to wash her hands. I have told her she is no longer allowed to wash her hands unless she pees. Who knew hand washing could be used as a bribe? When she had a nappy put on at 7, she peed through it in about 5 minutes and leaked on to Taylor's jeans. That was a whole lot of holding that girl did.

This is so totally a mum post. Sorry to any of the fellas that read this (a grand total of four, I believe!)

Visiting the sea lions

Yesterday after Taylor finished school we went over to the mall as it was customer appreciation day and all the attractions were free. Our plan was to go to Galaxyland, but we ran into Liam with his friend Josh and Josh's mum and apparently it was extremely busy, full of teenagers jumping the line and generally being teens. (In a little under a year and a half I will be the mother of one of THEM and I am sort of dreading it. Even though the majority of the ones I know are very nice.) They were going to go play miniature golf instead and I said that I would take the girls to the sea lions instead.

It's a half hour show, called Treasure of the Mall or something like that and is complete with cheesy acting, 2 sea lions and a penguin. It was cute, if not a tad boring and a little long for an antsy almost 2 year old. Taylor was picked to throw rings at one of the sea lions and she did a pretty good job. At the end you could have your picture taken and I was sure Saoirse, who loves the sea lions, would be great. I was so wrong. Taylor was holding her and when it jumped up it splashed and she immediately started crying and buried her head on Taylor. Ah well.



Note that I still can not get Taylor to brush her hais properly and I DID NOT buy her that hideous shirt. My friend did. Those Mary Kate and Ashley clothes are some ugly.

One reason why I adore Saoirse

We were coming home from the health clinic, Saoirse had decided to walk rather than ride in the pram with Sophie. She hopped in puddles, was stopped by some woman who said she was beautiful (she was looking pretty cute in her new jacket and hat) and then decided she would try and unzip my purse which was hanging off the stroller.

ME: "What are you doing Saoirse?"
S: "Opening purse."
Me: "What do you need from my purse?"
S: "Money."

Proof that this child belongs to me. She loves money and shoes, just like her mummy.